The Man, The Myth, The Legend

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This evening I took my son to the historic music hall of the Carnegie Library in nearby Carnegie, PA. The occasion was a talk on Lincoln, from his nomination to his election, his journey to Washington and the eventual outbreak of the Rebellion. While it’s a well known story, we were in attendance not for the message, but rather for the messenger. NPS historian emeritus Ed Bearss kept a crowd of about 150, including a normally antsy 10 year old boy, enraptured for about an hour. There’s nothing quite like an Ed Bearss presentation. Afterwards, he was gracious enough to sign my three volume set of The Vicksburg Campaign, while having a nice conversation about mutual friends Teej Smith, Col. Jerry Wulf, and Dr. Charlie Smallwood (if any of you are reading this, Ed says “Hi!”). Here’s a picture of The Great Man inscribing Volume I to me (this was taken with my phone, so excuse the quality):

Thanks for giving Ed my regards, Harry. He was in Pinehurst on January 8, his first stop on a four RT tour in three days. His topic for the Rufus Barringer CWRT was the Gettysburg personality everyone loves to hate, Dan Sickles. As always I learned a few things I didn’t know. In this case it was that Sickles arranged to have the fence that once enclosed Lafayette Square where he shot and killed Barton Key, moved to Gettysburg as a permanent reminder that he (Sickles) got away with murder. Ed Bearss is indeed a “national treasure.”

Dulce bellum inexpertis

“I am sending you these little incidents as I hear them well authenticated. They form, to the friends of the parties, part of the history of the glorious 21st. More anon.”

About

Hello! I’m Harry Smeltzer and welcome to Bull Runnings, where you'll find my digital history project on the First Battle of Bull Run which is organized under the Bull Run Resources section. I'll also post my thoughts on the processes behind the project and commentary on the campaign, but pretty much all things Civil War are fair game. You'll only find musings on my “real job” or my personal life when they relate to this project. My mother always told me "never discuss politics or religion in mixed company”, and that's sound advice where current events are concerned.

The Project

This site is more than a blog. Bull Runnings also hosts digitized material pertaining to First Bull Run. In the Bull Run Resources link in the masthead and also listed below are links to Orders of Battle, After Action Reports, Official Correspondence, Biographical Sketches, Diaries, Letters, Memoirs, Newspaper Accounts and much, much more. Take some time to surf through the material. This is a work in process with no end in sight, so check back often!